Prologue

The writer sat silently typing in his room at midnight, illuminated only by the light of a desk lamp, his roommate lightly dozing nearby. He looks up.

"What the? Oh, it’s only you. I’ve been expecting you for some time now. I’m almost done. Not to worry, it came out exactly as I’d wanted, if not better. Well, it could use some improvement, but then again, so could everything. Sit down please, and mind the stacked-up newspapers and the trash can. I don’t want to wake up my roommate. Him? Don’t worry, he can sleep through normal conversations, as long as their not too high in volume."

The writer rises slowly to his feet, stretching his back.

"I’ve been sitting down for too long. But it’s worth it, I’m done! Now the world will finally be redeemed!" The writer’s roommate snorts, and looks around mumbling incoherently.

"Who’re talking to, Jeremy?" he slurs. The writer’s face turns dark, as dark the moonless sky outside his window.

"No one, friend, no one at all. Just go back to sleep. I have some, uh, "studying" to do downstairs."

"Whatever." He rolls over in his bed, pulling the covers.

The writer’s face brightens, as bright as the full moon. He stands up straight.

"Finally, it is time."

©YuYuYuYu©

"Break-time’s over, boys!"

The workers slowly got to their feet, closed their lunch boxes, and went back to work, their meaningless work. Why so meaningless? Because each one knew that in just ten days, they would be replaced by unthinking, unfeeling machines, more efficient, and less costly. To them, the Age of Technology meant nothing but an unemployment check, and perhaps higher taxes. Computers weren’t helpful devices to them, computers destroyed their livelihoods. It wasn’t an isolated case, either. It was happening all across America. There were only two choices that they could see:

1. Try to find new work after layoffs, maybe take a computer education course, join the "twenty-first century" before it really happened.
2. Revolt!

Which one should they choose, how can they decide? How many French revolutions were there? How many union strikes in the last century? In the end, did they really do any good at all? Maybe conformity is the best. But the union leader was angry. He had to decide what to do.

The employee bided his time. Before long he would be able to accomplish his most desired goal in all his short time on the planet. All the monetary matters he was plagued with would soon be no more. Employees in the company had been bullied for too long. He would take a stand. He would shape the future, for a better future. He would kill the CEO.

The senator paced back and forth in his private office. He had to make a choice within the hour. Would he take the bribe or not from the foreign diplomat? It was the most difficult decision he had ever had to make. Why not? Just one vote didn’t mean anything. Nothing at all. Or did it?

The senator shook his head.

No, he had to decide, time was running out.

???????????

"And that’s just the beginning," the writer finished. "There are millions and billions, probably infinite, decisions made every day of our lives. Some are meaningless, like where you sit in class. But others . . . others are very different indeed. I have lived two lifetimes, two very different lifetimes. Both exactly one hundred and fifty-three years worth, but both very different. And not even as the same people! I have lived instead, as the people of each Earth, on the same Earth, but with two eerily similar endings. Or so it seemed at first. But then, I realized that neither was reality at all. It was all just a preparation for this life, for my final trek through existence. The question is: which reality is more likely? The answer I think? I’ll tell you after I finish both tales. Believe me, the answer is well worth the wait. And if you’re thinking of just flipping to the end, well, it won’t make sense. At least not yet. But don’t worry, our world is a big place. And our lives on it so minuscule, you would think that you wouldn’t have any impact on the future. And that’s what these tales will prove wrong."

Tales 1 and 2

of Bad and Good?